What is the point of a national team? A reward for the best players? Or a collection of whoever is required to execute the most fruitful and successful game plan?
Of course, these two options aren't mutually exclusive. It's best to think of them as the two circles of a Venn diagram. It's in the overlap where the magic happens.
This image of the Venn diagram, who exists in the overlap, and who exists on the periphery, is the best way to conceptualise the challenges facing Tony Gustavsson as the Matildas head into the final two matches of 2022 and beyond.
In this October international window, the Matildas were without several key players. The stat Gustavsson himself used following the 4-1 win over South Africa painted a vivid picture.
"It's been a lot of challenges for us when it comes to players being unavailable," he said. "And then if you add Sam Kerr to that as well, we had seven before the camp start and then Sam. Someone sent me the list about seven starters from that GB game not being available from the Olympics in this game."
Nowhere was harder hit than the centre of the park.
Three of the seven midfielders initially named for this series were forced to withdraw due to a slew of injuries. Another was Chloe Logarzo who is still in the infancy of her return from an ACL injury. These enforced absences would force Gustavsson's hand into seeing how a Matildas midfield would operate without some of its most well-known and rusted-on quantities.
- Subscribe to ESPN's Women's Football Podcast: The Far Post
The evidence provided by this two-game series offered as many answers as it did questions. How Gustavsson goes about utilising this information remains to be seen.
Among all the questions and answers that were found, three stick out more than others.
The first of these is what to do with Emily van Egmond. Fan sentiment, particularly after the losses to Canada, centred on her perceived lack of intensity, laconic movement, and defensive weaknesses. What she could, and had, produced did not match what she was actually producing.
While there is a strong argument that being utilised as a No. 8 in a midfield that has Katrina Gorry behind her and Mary Fowler in front isn't her optimal position, her performances looked at odds with what was required from the role, and her sprinklings of good play felt unsubstantial.
In this way, no one better sums up the defining question of the national team more than Van Egmond. She is undeniably talented. She is a player who is world class and whose highlights for Australia are many and varied. But does she contribute to the best-functioning team? Is she in the overlap of the Venn diagram or on the periphery?
The evidence in these October matches suggests that a Matildas midfield can function quite well without Van Egmond in a starting role. This is not to remove her from the national team set up all together but transitions her into what Anna Harrington, ESPN's The Far Post, described as a "luxury player role." Someone who can come off the bench and get a job done, someone who can come in clutch when Australia needs her.
Gustavsson must now decide whether he was convinced by the midfield deployed in these two matches or if he will continue to persist with Van Egmond in some starting XI capacity.
The next question centres on Fowler. While it's an easy joke, there really truly is something about Mary. At only 19, her talent is already supreme and only going to get better as she continues to develop.
However, she didn't look herself against South Africa and didn't start against Denmark. Without her, Australia lost none of their dazzle, and clicked well.
The teenager has more than confirmed that she is too good to be considered a fringe Matildas player. But she is not yet established enough -- in club land or for country -- to contort the team to suit her. Instead, it appears that she is utilised in positions that don't maximise the best of her. She is positioned wherever there is feasibly room for an attacking-minded player and a box can be ticked that she was in the starting XI.
Fowler is both young enough and inexperienced enough that a simple drop in form is a plausible explanation for her less-than-impressive window. And the question marks around her extend beyond the confines of the national team.
If Gustavsson is to persist with her in that attacking midfield role, she needs to be playing there week in and week out -- something that is not happening at Manchester City currently.
A loan move might be the best thing for Fowler to continue her development in the role she has been tasked with at international level. And it may help to answer the question of how the Matildas get the most out of this generational talent?
The final big question for Gustavsson is Alex Chidiac.
Fans have been calling for more of her. After a rough trot of moves abroad, her return to the A-League Women saw her shine for Melbourne Victory. The consistent game time did wonders for her formm and confidence, and her move to Racing Louisville has only continued the upward progression.
This window, with its many absences, felt like hers to take, and she absolutely did. In a similar fashion to Clare Wheeler's tackle against the USWNT in Newcastle that led to Kyah Simon 's equaliser, Chidiac entered the game against Denmark, immediately harried and pressured an opponent, leading the ball to find its way to the feet of Gorry, who unleashed a wonder strike to put the Matildas ahead.
It felt like an announcement: This is what I can do for this team.
Chidiac provided a little bit of everything. The intensity and hard running that had been lacking thanks to injuries and other mitigating circumstances. The creativity and forward thinking she showed not only in her passing but also in her running. She rekindled her connection with Kyra Cooney-Cross from their Victory days -- a known winning combination -- and showed glimpses of what could be a successful collaboration with Gorry.
If Van Egmond offers one side of the Venn diagram, Chidiac seemingly represents the other. Not nearly as experienced but also talented. Where in the Venn diagram does she sit, and where should Gustavsson be placing her?
Looking forward, the hope is that Gustavsson will have the best possible headache come November. In an ideal world every player who was unavailable for the October window is back to full fitness, giving him the widest selection of talent to choose from.
From there he must find answers to all of the questions above. He must figure out what the best possible Matildas midfield looks like. He must find a solution, a balance, between known quantities and resting on the laurels of big names.
He must figure out what to do with the learnings he has no doubt gleaned from what was not only his most successful window on paper since April 2022 but also what was arguably his best looking window.
Will he return to what he had been deploying, and speak of consistency and bedding down combinations and systems? Or will he persist with what worked successfully against two very different opponents?
How much does the fact that the Gustavsson project delivered exactly what he said it would in consecutive matches for what feels like the first time in his decision making?
Australia will find out in Melbourne in less than a month's time.